1. Contents: The Players Timing Peer Reviewed
THE INFORMATION CYCLE
Contents:
The Players
Timing
Peer Reviewed

2. The Information Cycle: from User to Producer

3. KNOW THE PLAYERS
USER/PRODUCER: In order to produce one essay we read at least 3 articles. To write an article just look at the list of references of one peer-reviewed article, which may have 50 or more.
PRIMARY SOURCES: experimental/observational data.
SECONDARY SOURCES: Journals, books, etc.
United States University has purchased annual access to databases that contain peer-reviewed sources: EBSCO, PROQUEST and JSTOR.
Collaborative systems like DOAR, DOAJ, OAISTER, GOOGLE SCHOLAR, GOOGLE BOOKS.
WEB: A great platform to host all the players

4. TIMING
How old is the information you are reading? if it was published in 2015?
If it is a Journal, let’s count: Data collection & analysis: 1st. year; writing, presentation at meetings: 2nd. Year; Journal peer review, published & indexed: 3rd. Year.
Perhaps today’s retrieved article is 3 years old. There is a waiting list in the publishing arena.
How long do you think books take? Electronic sources?

5. WHY PEER REVIEW
To validate the work published in the article-journal: data analysis, methodology, results & sources.
The journal’s editors have 3-5 specialists in the area of study review the work.
Pre-print means there has been no peer review yet.
Post-print means it has been peer-reviewed, but with author’s changes.
Databases, Repositories (DOAR), DOAJ, OAISTER, WHOLIS, have peer-reviewed articles.

6. WHY PEER REVIEW
Does Wikipedia has peer-reviewed articles; have you taken a look?
Remember this link if one day you publish an article and want to know about the copyright laws for your own work:
Be more aware of who publishes what you read & who supports or validates the information in it.

7. WHAT GOES FOR PEER REVIEW?
Articles
Books
Chapters
Master’s & PhD Theses
All documents that the institution decides to be validated by specialists.

8. WHAT GOES TO REPOSITORIES
Pre & Post Prints
Books
Book Chapters
Theses
Technical Reports
Manuals
And all documents permitted by copyright law

9. DO YOU KNOW WHO & WHAT YOU ARE QUOTING in your essay?
Regarding time, is it the most recent, up-to-date research?
Peer-reviewed: is it?
How many more articles has the author written?
Is the author an expert in the field?
Do you know the institution behind the author?

10. Please practice your CRITICAL THINKING by:
SELECTING YOUR AUTHORS
SELECTING YOUR TERMS
SELECTING YOUR REFERENCES
SELECTING YOUR SEARCH STRATEGIES
SELECTING YOUR DATABASES
For assistance please contact the Librarian:
ext. 2017